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Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero will be among those participating in the upcoming "Women in Politics" workshop to be hosted by the Department of Political Science. It has been organized by Dr. Jana Morgan. The event will be held April 10-11 in the Toyota Auditorium. It is free and open to the public! Complete information can be found here http://polisci.utk.edu/womenpolitics/index.php The workshop will kick off with a roundtable discussion and Q&A session at 8:00 pm on April 10. Featured speakers will include Rogero and several prominent scholars who will talk about the roles women play in politics. The research workshop portion of the conference will take place on April 11, and speakers will present and discuss several research papers related to the theme of gender and politics. The conference is sponsored by the Haines-Morris Endowment, the Department of Political Science, the Department of American Studies, the Department of Global Studies, the Department of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and the Department of Women’s Studies. ======================================================== Also, don't forget April 10, 3:30 - 5 pm -- E&E Forum on "Shale Gas Development Impacts on Surface Water Quality in Pennsylvania." Abstract: Concern has been raised in the scientific literature about the environmental implications of extracting natural gas from deep shale formations, and published studies suggest that shale gas development may affect local groundwater quality. The potential for surface water quality degradation has been discussed in prior work, although no empirical analysis of this issue has been published. The potential for large-scale surface water quality degradation has affected regulatory approaches to shale gas development in some US states, despite the dearth of evidence. This paper conducts a large-scale examination of the extent to which shale gas development activities affect surface water quality. Focusing on the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania, we estimate the effect of shale gas wells and the release of treated shale gas waste by permitted treatment facilities on observed downstream concentrations of chloride (Cl−) and total suspended solids (TSS), controlling for other factors. Results suggest that (i) the treatment of shale gas waste by treatment plants in a watershed raises downstream Cl− concentrations but not TSS concentrations, and (ii) the presence of shale gas wells in a watershed raises downstream TSS concentrations but not Cl− concentrations. These results can inform future voluntary measures taken by shale gas operators and policy approaches taken by regulators to protect surface water quality as the scale of this economically important activity increases.